After a mishap with my Pulsatilla vulgaris painting, I have decided that I need to start it again. But, first I felt I needed a bit more painting practice, so have completed my little painting of Eastern Art (see first post).
Here are a few progress pictures to completion. Please note they are only photographs so a bit “camera-wonky”. The painting needs a few days to dry completely before I can remove it from the pad and scan it in high resolution. I believe it will make fantastic cards.
Stylized flowers and leaves, based on tulips, iris and Bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos). All painted flat with body colour.
Blue and turquoise background added (carefully!). Lost a bit of edge detail on the flowers.
Gold paint overlaid on background body colour in horizontal thin lines. Variations from gold to silver paint; bottom brown and silver.
Re-outlined some of the petal and leaf elements to make them stand out more. Also changed the green to be more vibrant as it sunk rather into the background colours.
Gold paint mixed with transparent yellow and ochre. It is wise to do all the areas of one colour at a time—and of course mix enough paint to cover those areas!
It is traditional to have a complementary border to the artwork, and I felt that warm sepia with a touch of Nickel Titanate yellow was a good contrast to the gold in the borders. And to break up that dark colour, the corners replicate the blue/turquoise of the under-background.
There are traditional filigree patterns, but because I made up the whole composition myself, I decided just to go with my own flow and design. The border runs from bottom left, up right, top right to left, then top to bottom on the left in the final work. I added more transparent yellow as well as my favourite colour, Naples yellow, to get a slightly lighter gold than the border lines, because I painted it straight onto the warm sepia (also traditional).
And finally, I outlined the extremities of the design and around the picture itself before signing the completed artwork. A5 Cards coming up! (Many apologies for the wonkiness of the painting—camera lenses still have a way to go in my book!!!)…and now another go at the Pulsatilla.…and I still have my little pen and ink illustrations for the booklets to do, as well as my grey squirrels!